284 
The “ Bottle-Bacillus ” 
Staining reactions. 
The organisms are not acid-fast. When stained according to Gram’s 
method, they are as a rule found to be Gram-positive; the larger forms 
of the organism (bacilli, filaments) are however often decolourised. 
Fermentation reactions. 
As the morphological characters of the D. M. seemed to suggest a 
yeast-like nature, I thought it worth while to test its effect upon a 
series of sugars, and upon starch. The results of these experiments are 
given in the following table. 
Observations made three iveelcs after inoculation. 
Sugars 
Acid 
Gas 
Kemarks 
Glucose 
+ 
+ 
— 
Lactose 
( + ) 
- 
Only traces of acid. 
Galactose 
- 
- 
— 
Levulose 
( + ) 
- 
Only traces of acid. 
Maltose 
( + ) 
- 
Only traces of acid. 
Raffinose 
- 
- 
— 
Cane-sugar 
- 
- 
Dulcite 
- 
- 
- 
Mannite 
- 
- 
— 
Inuline 
- 
- 
— 
Starch 
( + ) 
- 
Only traces of acid. 
A glance at the above table shows that the D. M. has not great 
fermentative power, glucose being the only sugar that shows a distinct 
though rather slow fermentation, the production of acid not being 
recognizable until the second or third day. The amount of acid and 
gas formed in a three weeks’ culture in glucose broth is inconsiderable. 
Pathogenicity. 
I experimented on eight animals, two rats, two guinea-pigs, and four 
rabbits. The two rats were shaved on the back, over an area of about 
two inches in diameter, any injury of the skin being carefully avoided. 
Material from a two days’ broth culture was then rubbed into the clean 
